Natural Occurrence
Methamphetamine has been reported to occur naturally in Acacia berlandieri, and possibly Acacia rigidula, trees that grow in West Texas. Methamphetamine and amphetamine were long thought to be strictly human-synthesized, but Acacia trees contain these and numerous other psychoactive compounds (e. g., mescaline, nicotine, dimethyltryptamine), and the related compound β-phenethylamine is known to occur from numerous Acacia species. The findings, however, have never been confirmed or repeated, leading some researchers to believe the results were the result of cross-contamination.
Read more about this topic: Methamphetamine
Famous quotes containing the words natural and/or occurrence:
“In my state, on the basis of the separate but equal doctrine, we have made enormous strides over the years in the education of both races. Personally, I think it would have been sounder judgment to allow that progress to continue through the process of natural evolution. However, there is no point crying about spilt milk.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)